Iraqi President Talabani says will not barter disputed city of Kirkuk

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Talabani, himself a Kurd, told a joint press conference with Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdish regional administration in northern Iraq, that he would not trade control of ethnically-mixed Kirkuk for anything else.

"Article 140 is a constitutional and lawful article. No one can violate the law or constitution ... I will never be ready to trade Kirkuk for anything. There will be no bargaining with Kirkuk," the Iraqi president was quoted by Reuters as saying. 

Article 140 of Iraq's 2005 constitution calls for several steps to address the dispute over Kirkuk from the population mix of Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen, including the holding of a referendum.

Tensions have risen in Kirkuk, which sits on as much as 4 percent of the world's oil, as Iraqi Kurdish leaders seek to incorporate it into their semi-autonomous area. The ancient city, which was once a part of Ottoman Empire, has been the scene of repeated violence in recent months.

The showdown is so volatile that Kirkuk was excluded from regional elections in January and the United Nations has offered a proposal for compromise plans with the hope of helping end decades of deadlock over the city.

The report contained four options to overcome disputes over control of Kirkuk and recommendations on 14 other contested areas in northern Iraq. The options, all of which treat the province as a single unit, were not made public.

Barzani said the Kurdish regional administration, increasingly estranged from the Shiite Arab-led government in Baghdad, was studying the report and could not yet comment on it.